On Thursday 6 July, the European Court of Justice upheld the €61.44 million fine imposed on Toshiba (of which €4.65 million to be paid jointly with Mitsubishi) for its participation in the gas insulated switchgear (GIS) cartel between 1988-2004 with 19 other European and Japanese companies (C-180/16 P).
In so doing, the Court rejects the appeal made by Toshiba against the judgments of 19 January 2016 by the General Court (see EUROPE 11471), which for the first time upheld those new amended fines against Toshiba and Mitsubishi by the European Commission on 27 June 2012, following the annulment of the previous fines by the General Court in July 2011 (see EUROPE 10417).
The Commission recalculated the fines imposed on Toshiba and Mitsubishi and fixed them at and €56.79 million and €74.82 million respectively in 2012. The amount to be paid joint and severally by those two undertakings was again fixed at €4.65 million for the participation in the cartel by their commonly owned subsidiary TM T&D Corp. These fines are therefore final. Mitsubishi did not lodge an appeal against the judgement by the General Court in January 2016
In its judgement, the Court rejects all the arguments invoked by Toshiba and therefore confirms that: the company’s defence rights were not violated despite the absence of another Communication of grievances from the Commission before the second calculation of the fines; the amount of the revised fine was calculated appropriately by taking into account the specific situation of Toshiba in relation to the other participants in the cartel, such as the European companies; given the seriousness of the case, a reduction of the fine imposed on Toshiba cannot be justified later on, despite the fact that the company had not participated in the cartel between the 19 European and Japanese companies. (Original version in French by Francesco Gariazzo)